An electrical contact known from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 181,360 comprises; an elongated electrical contact portion and a wire connecting tab offset from a longitudinal center axis of the contact portion. The tab is connected to a central portion of the contact by an offset bent portion of the contact for locating the tab in an offset plane.
An electrical connector assembly includes an insulative housing and two rows of spaced apart cavities in the housing. Metal electrical contacts, of the type described in the preceding paragraph of text, are mounted in corresponding cavities, such that the contacts are in two rows. The electrical contacts of the same first row have their corresponding tabs offset to lie in a common plane. The electrical contacts of the second row have their corresponding tabs offset to lie also in the same common plane.
Having the tabs available in a common plane facilitates a procedure of joining the tabs to corresponding wires. According to a known procedure, the wires are simultaneously overlaid upon the coplanar tabs and are connected in one joining operation, for example, by soldering or welding. Thus, to facilitate ease in connection of the tabs to corresponding wires, the tab of all the contacts are offset to lie in a common plane. Each tab is offset by forming two bends. The bends are relatively close to each other and are in the thickness of the tab. Because the tab is slender, stress of the material is distributed over a limited cross sectional dimension of the tab. Stress tends to be concentrated at the intersection of the tab with an edge surface. Concentration of stress occurring over a passage of time, or at the time the contact is driven into the cavity of the housing, may cause stress cracks to develop in the material.